Public School - Just Say No to Nuns

      The summer before my fourth year of school, my mother asked me if I would rather go to a public school. Curious, I asked her how public school differed from Catholic school. She told me that public school did not have church services or nuns. The prospect of not being around nuns was inviting. However, you know the saying, "The devil that we know is often preferable to the devil that we don't know."

      My mother saw my hesitancy and said, "They have laboratories where you can do lots of scientific experiments, and in the labs, and they keep a lot of different animals. Also," she said, "you don't have to wear a tie or a suit. You wear regular clothes."

      My mother knew which buttons to push. Years later, I found out that my mother saw the eventual breakup of her marriage with my philandering father. She knew that her financial resources would be diminished and Catholic school did cost money. Still, she felt guilt over the prospect of taking us out of a school system that had a reputation of imparting a better education than the public school system. I suppose by her asking me to decide, it helped her to alleviate those feelings of guilt.

      That year, my sister and I went to Penn Square Elementary School. I was thankful of the change. The kids in this school wore clothes with a variety of bold colors and exciting designs.

I eager for the opportunity to wear some of these clothes, instead of the stuffy, uncomfortable suit and ties I had been wearing. I was delighted to leave the oppressive, prison-like atmosphere of St. Francis and get far away from the strange wraiths that called themselves nuns. The new public school even felt freer. I soon found out, however, that with greater freedom, came greater risks and danger.